Preparing for Marriage: Some Financial Considerations for Wedding Planning and Beyond

June 11, 2025

Getting married is a significant life event. It is a time for celebration, planning and looking forward to the future with your partner. From the engagement to the wedding ceremony to planning for your life together, there is much to be considered. Working with your partner to understand financial aspects is important as shared financial goals and collaboration in managing finances can lead to success in reaching lifetime goals.

Wedding Planning and Budgeting

Planning for a wedding starts with determining your vision and priorities. The process can involve many aspects including determining your style, theme and preferred aesthetics; selecting attire; choosing a venue, creating a guest list and finding vendors to help achieve the wedding of your dreams within your financial resources.

Budgeting for your wedding is central to the planning process. List all expenses, prioritizing the list from most to least important. Next calculate the total estimated cost of your wedding expenses compared to your available funds. Finally, determine if your expectation is reasonable and if there are sufficient monies to pay for all costs. If there is a shortfall you may consider decreasing the expectations of the wedding plans, delaying the wedding date to allow more time for saving or trimming expenses.

To help you stay on track with your wedding spending, open a separate “wedding expenses only” bank account so funds do not get intermingled with monies needed for everyday spending. Create a spreadsheet and track all expenses. Although many dream of having the perfect wedding, keeping within your wedding budget and not paying for expenses with borrowed funds will help with readiness for other lifetime financial goals.

Marriage and Finances

Open dialogue about creating common goals for wedding plans and budget can create good financial habits for marriage. Discussions and understanding about finances are important. Sharing details about your personal situation can help prevent misunderstandings and disagreements later. Talking about spending habits, each other’s views on how much spending money is reasonable and ideas for mid-term and long-term savings goals is important. All this can help in developing an understanding about each other’s attitudes on finances.

The initial step is being informed of your partner’s financial history and the assets and liabilities they are coming into marriage with. Outline all assets such as savings accounts, investments, insurance policies and other valuable assets, along with disclosing all liabilities such as student debt, balances outstanding on credit cards and lines of credit and car loans. Share your credit history with your partner so there are no misunderstandings if joint applications are made for credit such as a mortgage or car loan. Sharing details about income is important to gain a full financial picture and how much income is available to allocate to fixed expenses, discretionary spending and attaining savings goals.

Day-to-Day Banking

Practical areas that require day-to-day financial management include the setting up of bank accounts. Will you and your partner have separate or joint bank accounts or a combination of both? If you decide on separate bank accounts, a decision will have to be made on how to manage and pay for joint living expenses such as residential costs including mortgage or rent, utilities and property insurance. If the choice is to have joint bank accounts, the discussion will have to revolve around handling personal spending. Consulting each other if wishing to spend over a certain limit may be a good strategy to implement as this helps support joint decision making and transparency on larger expenses.

Managing Pre-Existing Debt

One spouse may come into the relationship with more debt than the other. This can have an impact on the joint standard of living, paying for shared expenses and discretionary spending. Discussing and assessing how the debt came about is important to gaining clarity about the nature of the financial obligation and creating a plan for paying down the debt as soon as possible

Creating Financial Success Together

Working together towards financial success is important as it can foster shared goals that benefit both partners and their family. Some areas to work on together for financial success and wellbeing include:

Budgeting

Budgeting is a plan that outlines how you will spend your money each month. It is calculated by adding together your income/net pay (all take home monies after deductions have been removed) and listing all fixed expenses. Some examples of fixed expenses include residential costs such as mortgage and property taxes or rent, utilities, groceries, transportation costs and debt repayment. Subtract the total of all fixed expenses from total net income. If there is a surplus, it can be distributed to discretionary spending which may include allocating funds for savings goals, entertainment, restaurant dining or vacations. While structuring your finances try to build an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses or help with paying for expenses in case of job loss or time away from work due to an illness or other unforeseen circumstances. Creating financial goals as a joint endeavor can help support both partner’s priorities. Set clearly outlined goals, include a time frame for meeting each goal and note the finances that will be allocated. Review budgets regularly and update as circumstances change. Some examples of changes might include a new job or income level, the birth of a child or when previous financial goals are met and new ones come about.

Sharing Financial Tasks

Sharing Financial Tasks offers several benefits including a more complete understanding of household finances, allowing for better communication and teamwork in achieving shared financial goals. Some areas that could be completed jointly include preparing and filing income taxes, paying bills and making investment decisions.

Filing income tax together

Filing income tax together could have advantages for married couples and allows for more strategic tax planning. This includes being eligible to combine deductions and credits, splitting eligible pension income and contributing to a spouse’s registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) must be notified of a change in marital status by the end of the month following any change. Your marital status impacts the amount received as benefit and credit payments are calculated based on adjusted family net income (AFNI), which includes both spouse’s incomes. CRA will recalculate the benefits and credits you are entitled to using the new amount coming into effect the month after your marital status change.

Wills and Power of Attorneys

Wills and Power of Attorneys must be created or updated once the couple is married. A Will allows the couple to outline how their assets are to be divided between their beneficiaries, if one or both were to pass away, in a way that reflects their new marital status and family structure. It provides peace of mind for both spouses that their wishes are documented and their loved ones are provided for. Although spouses often have the legal right to act and make decisions on each other’s behalf, the power of attorney provides specific authority over finances and medical care in situations where the individual may have mental incapacities or are unable to complete their own transactions due to illness or geographical limitations.

Couples that focus on working together, in planning for their wedding and collaborating on their finances within marriage, can strengthen communication and understanding of mutual goals to support each other’s dreams and aspirations. Openly communicating and treating financial management as a partnership can help with achieving goals and overall financial well-being.

FirstOntario Credit Union in partnership with Aviso Wealth has an experienced team of advisors specializing in various areas of wealth management including retirement planning, investment management, estate and succession planning, individual financial risk management and more. These professionals are here to help you plan for the future and reach your financial goals. Visit FirstOntario.com/Investments or call 1-800-616-8878 ext. 1700 to connect with a FirstOntario advisor and start growing your wealth today – your way.

Mutual funds and other securities are offered through Aviso Wealth, a division of Aviso Financial Inc. The information contained in this report was obtained from sources believed to be reliable; however, we cannot guarantee that it is accurate or complete. This should be considered as a general source of information and should not be considered personal investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any mutual funds. The views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Aviso Wealth.